Frost & Sullivan outlines five key growth opportunities in the Middle East ICT sector

10X Technology

Mita Srinivasan
10X Technology
Published:

Frost & Sullivan outlines five key growth opportunities in the Middle East ICT sector

Middle East ICT market expected to reach $95.05 billion by 2025 driven by rising demand for technologies, including AI, machine learning, and IoT

Frost & Sullivan’s recent analysis, Innovative Business Models Spur Growth of Middle East ICT Market, Outlook 2021, finds that governments’ digital transformation initiatives and enterprises’ acceptance of disruptive technologies catalyse the Middle East ICT market growth expected to reach $95.05 billion by 2025.

To tap into this lucrative growth prospect, these governments should focus on five key areas:

  • 5G: 5G networks’ ability to provide massive machine-type communication will accelerate its adoption in the GCC IoT/M2M (machine to machine) industry and will support use cases such as connected cars, grid management, fleet management, utility meter reading, and track-and-trace systems for logistics.

  • IoT: The adoption of IoT will primarily be driven by the manufacturing and industrial sectors as they look toward adopting and implementing concepts such as Industry 4.0 and predictive maintenance.

  • AI: Banking, retail, and healthcare are expected to be the forerunners in the large-scale adoption of AI in the Middle East. These are labour-intensive sectors and will provide immense scope for industrial automation.

  • Cybersecurity: Business risks associated with cyber-attacks and the consequent negative impact on enterprises’ brand value and perception will drive future cybersecurity investment in the Middle East.

  • Gaming and eSports: The growing consumer appetite for on-the-go gaming and the surge in in-app micro-transactions will support the development and the transformation of the eSports and gaming industry in the region.

Shibapriya Saha, Program Manager at Frost & Sullivan, added, “Rising demand for technologies, including AI, machine learning, and IoT, will drive market growth. 5G, classrooms of the future, e-governance, next-generation healthcare, smart cities, smart mobility, and smart tourism are key focus areas for governments and enterprises.”

According to Saha, as enterprises in the Middle East move to the cloud-based model, the region will become one of the most profitable markets for global cloud and data centre providers.